In September, British auction house Christie’s will host Europe’s largest exhibition of Wallace Chan’s dreamlike jewellery and art.
Known as ‘The Wheel of Time’, the exhibition will be located at Christie’s headquarters in London and is open to the public from 4-10 September.
The exhibition is a 50-year retrospective of Chan’s career creating high-end jewellery and titanium sculptures. Approximately 150 pieces of jewellery and six sculptures will be on display – including previously unseen pieces.
“In the blink of an eye, half a century has flown by. Time is an eternal wheel that rotates for infinity with neither beginning nor end. In the creative process, time is a theme so intangible, yet omnificent.” Chan said.
“I am grateful to my long-term collectors for loaning the pieces; without their friendship, the exhibition would not be possible.”
The 67-year-old artist was raised in Hong Kong, entering the jewellery industry at 16 as a gemstone carver. In 1987, he masterminded the ‘Wallace Cut’, a carving technique that creates three-dimensional figures within a gemstone.
François Curiel, chairman of Christie’s Europe, said the exhibition pays tribute to Chan’s innovative nature as an artist.
“A deeply philosophical man, Wallace infuses his jewels with Oriental spiritualism,” Curiel said.
“This is the motif which he spends his entire creative life interpreting and reinterpreting, experimenting with endless combinations of gemstones, mediums, styles, aesthetics, and executed in his world-renowned techniques.”
A highlight of the exhibition will be ‘Legend of the Colour Black’ – a shoulder brooch sculpture featuring one of the largest known black diamonds at 312 carats.
The majority of the pieces featured in the exhibition are on loan from international collectors.
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